I let him lead the way upstairs, and I padded along behind him in my bare feet. I carried my shoes in one hand and left my shirt unbuttoned, allowing the night air to cool my flushed skin. I left plenty of space between us, because I didn’t trust myself to touch him. Not right now when my predator instincts were still running hot.
I wanted to feel him under me, quivering, begging, tears glittering on his cheeks… I closed my eyes against the image, my skin overheating with need.
The apartment had the eerie stillness of being vacant, the scents of other shifters stale. “Kedi?” I asked, nudging the door closed behind me and flicking the deadbolt.
Joel turned to me with a sultry smirk. “They’re all hanging out at Ricky’s place tonight. We have the whole apartment to ourselves… allll night.”
The promise of being alone and undisturbed with my mate had me prowling closer, and as if he sensed the threat, reveled in it, Joel walked backward slowly toward his bedroom, luring me in with the scent of his slick.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, I darted forward and caught him about the waist, my fingers digging into his soft body. I forced myself to loosen my hold and reached up to pluck one blond curl, just to watch it bounce back into shape. I’d never wanted anything in my life more than I did this man. It would be dangerous of me to ignore the risk of something this intense. “Joel, I don’t know if I’ll be able hold back. I know we both enjoyed the chase, but I really don’t want to hurt you. If at any point, it gets to be too much and you need me to stop…”
“I’ll say peaches,” he said, with utter seriousness.
I sputtered a laugh and arched a brow in question. “Peaches? How will that make me stop?”
He giggled, slipping his hands under the open edges of my shirt to push it back over my shoulders, tracing the lines of my matching pawprint tattoo. “It’s called a safe word, something you say that brings everything to an immediate stop, no questions asked. You have to pick a word you wouldn’t normally say in bed, and so… peaches.” He shrugged, smirking.
“Ah, I get it. Although why wouldn’t I say it in bed, when you have such a juicy peach right here,” I teased, giving his ass a squeeze. And it was indeed juicy, his slick making the back of his pants damp.
I allowed Joel to shove my shirt off, letting him go only long enough for the fabric to tumble to the floor. Next went my pants, and I’d foregone underwear. I had the urge to tear my mate’s clothes from his body, with teeth and claws if needed, but I kept that urge in check, instead giving him the tenderness he deserved, placing tender kisses along the skin I bared as I undressed him with the utmost patience.
At long last, I laid him out on the bed, naked and already shivering with need. “Are you sure?” he asked as I crawled into bed beside him, chest to chest. “Your first time is kind of a big deal. If you’re not feelingit—”
“Oh, trust me. I’m feeling it,” I assured him, pressing my hard length against his. I would be with none other but my fated mate, from this day until my last.
Nodding, Joel rolled onto his back and took my hand, and with utter confidence, he guided it south, trailing past his abs with the fine dusting of hair, even past his leaking cock, barely brushing the velvet skin. He didn’t stop until we’d reached our destination, the slick cleft of his ass. “You’ll need to prep me, stretch me with your fingers.” I’d ventured to slip a finger inside him yesterday, marveling at the way he’d gasped when I crooked it just so. This time, though, he would need more than one if the goal was to prepare him for my girth.
He kept his hand on mine as I eased one finger in gently, and then he shocked the hell out of me by moving one of his own fingers in alongside mine. “Oh fuck,” I muttered, shuffling down the bed so I could watch as we stretched his hole out together.
“Another,” he panted, head tilted back on the pillow.
Lying on the bed between his legs, I dedicated myself to working him open. Every gasp, every moan, I basked in the sounds I drew out of him, until I was four fingers deep inside him. He’d given up trying to help. His hands were now tangled in the sheets instead, threatening to tear the fabric.
He’d tasked me with prepping him, and I took this job very seriously—maybe too seriously, because Joel was soon writhing on my fingers, begging, “I’m good! I’m stretched! Oh gods, fuck me, please!”
Pulling my fingers back, I leaned in briefly to lick along the rim of his gaping hole as it clenched around nothing, savoring his dripping slick, before finally crawling up his body.
As I covered his body with mine, Joel came out of his daze long enough to point toward the bedside table. “Condom… in the drawer.”
I reached across the bed and grabbed a condom. Rising up onto my knees, I looked down at the foil package in my hand. I’d seen the videos where they put one on a banana, but now that it came down to it, the comparison seemed a stretch.
Joel misunderstood my hesitation, his eyes gleaming with uncertainty in the near dark. “Do you mind?” he asked shyly. “It’s just… I’m close to my heat, and we’re still new and—”
I kissed him quickly to cut off his babbling. “Of course I don’t mind.” I held the package up. “Would you help me? I’ve never done this before.”
He loosed a relieved breath and nodded. Tearing the pack with his teeth, Joel pinched the tip of the condom,then rolled it down my length, moving slowly and deliberately to show me how it was done. It was hard to pay attention, the smooth glide of his hands on my shaft too good.
Joel didn’t release his hold on my cock, simply angled it down to line up with his entrance, his warmth beckoning me, teasing me with the pleasure it promised. I hovered there above him, face to face, but I paused, hesitating. “I want it to feel good for you.”
Because what if I was bad at sex? Our chemistry was undeniable, the way our mouths molded, our hands searching out what made each other moan. No, it could never be bad between us. It would be earth-shattering. The possession I felt every time I made him come, this was something my body knew how to do, millennia of instinct built into my DNA. To claim, to procreate, even if there was a condom in the way.
Joel took my face in his hands, his gaze unwavering. “We were made for each other. It will be perfect,” he whispered, before kissing me.
As his tongue claimed me in his own way, I melted into him, into the sensations as his body yielded to mine. His slick warmth enveloped me one inch at a time, and I couldn’t have held back my moan if I tried. I shuddered with extreme pleasure as I found myself fully buried insidehim. Focusing on not coming too soon, I drew back slowly, until only the tip remained inside him, before surging forward once more.
Gods, it was so good.Toogood.
With my eyes clenched shut, teeth gritted, I moved with the utmost care for my mate’s comfort. The sensations that pummeled me with every breath, every roll of his hips, threatened to unravel me. The emotions were too raw, too all-consuming. I needed to keep these instincts leashed tight.
